Coaching Empire with John Ryan

Now we all understand the importance of location when it comes to real estate. Let’s take a look at some of the characteristics that make location such an important factor and what it means for you in creating even more success.

The first factor is Scarcity. They’re not making any more land. In fact, as the coast lines erode, we could even say that there is less land. And scarcity equals value. The more that availability is limited, the more valuable it is. How does this relate you? One thing to keep in mind is to not make yourself too available. If you call someone to set up an appointment and they tell you that they’re wide open for the next few weeks and that anytime works, it makes you wonder why they’re so available and you begin to question their value.

Another factor is Convenience. Depending on where you want to live, proximity to certain elements such as grocery stories, downtown areas, theaters, airports, etc, can be important. The further we are from these resources, the longer it takes to use them which costs us our most valuable resource: time. One way to use this is to think about ways that you can make your work environment more convenient. Is there anything you’re doing consistently that is costing you time. This will make your location more supportive and enable you to produce results more quickly. If you do something for 5 minutes every hour, such as look through papers trying to find documents, that’s 3.3 hours a week, 165 hours a year, or 4 forty-hour work weeks. What can you do with an extra 4 weeks a year?

Lastly, the Environment itself is key factor in determining the value of a location. This is the ambience, the feeling you get when you are at the home. The main question you need to ask yourself is when you walk into your office, do you feel energized? If you do, then your environment supports you. If not, you need to look around and find out what the problem is. Is it cluttered, is it not organized the way you want it, what’s missing that you need, or what’s present that you want to get rid of. Take a look and see what you need to do. Do it today!

While doing time management seminars, I invariably hear from one particpant or another that one of the challenges they have in managing their time is that they can’t seem to stop. They get caught up in a project, they skip lunch, and stay late in order to “get ahead.”

Ever been there? I know I have.

The thinking is that if they can just get this one thing done, then it will free them up the following day. Do you think they show up the following day with more time on their hands than they know what to do with? Of course not. That’s not how it works. The next day, something else pops up and they dive into that project.

The problem with time management is that sometimes we get so focused on completing a project, so that we can cross it off our to-do list, that we forget to think about the big picture.

Not all projects are created equal. And focus and energy spent on one project is energy that can’t be spent on another.

One recent seminar attendee told me that she often forgets about taking time for lunch until around 3pm when she starts to really get hungry. When someone is low on fuel, how productive are they going to be?

Let’s do the math. If she’s going to accomplish eight major things in a day while taking a half hour for lunch. Does it matter when she actually takes her lunch? Not really as far as results are concerned. However, as she depletes her energy as she goes further into the afternoon without refueling, might her focus be reduced? How about her overall productivity and quality of work? Most likely it is going to go down.

Here’s another example. When I work on projects around the house, I often like to immerse myself. The world fades away and I focus solely on whatever I’m doing. Often times I would find myself working until 2 or 3am trying to get it done so that I don’t have to worry about it tomorrow.

It is true that the following morning I don’t have that project on my to-do list but how do I feel having thrown my body off so drastically? While I may have freed up my schedule, my energy and mental focus were often impaired. Whatever gains I made the night before, were lost the next day.

Time management is not about trying to cross off everything on your list as fast as you possibly can. There are times for that, of course, such as when a major project is due. But ideally, it is about setting up a system that allows you to consistently produce results.

Some people prefer the go-go-go, then crash model. Which is fine if that works. But top performers know that it is not just about today, it is about achieving results today and tomorrow.

Take a look at how you manage your day. Do you manage your production capability, keeping an eye on the big picture or do you get caught with tunnel vision?

Sometime I run into people who are really hard on themselves? They beat themselves up for every mistake and they like to keep these mistakes top of mind to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

This sounds like it could be a good strategy, but when you think about focusing on past mistakes most of the time, how does that make you feel?

Do you feel empowered, confident, ready to tackle new challenges? Probably not.

Alright, so let’s get honest about mistakes.

They happen.

They are an opportunity to learn.

The trick is to get the learning from the mistake and move on. What they don’t need to become is ammunition that you can use to undermine your confidence.

Focus on Your Strengths

If you find yourself struggling a bit with this and hitting yourself with a lot of self-criticism, it’s time to spend some time focusing on your strengths. This is a great instant and long-term confidence builder.

If you’re a bit stuck in the past, go ahead and think about somethings that you’d like to do better in the future. At least when you frame it this way, you are focused on the learning and the future and it’s a much more positive exercise.

If you’re still looking backwards, go ahead and think about something that didn’t turn out the way you’d hoped. Now, look at all the things related to this situation that did go well.

Even when things aren’t perfect, there are usually parts of the experience that weren’t a disaster.

Practice giving yourself credit for the things that did go well and enjoy the confidence that comes from this change in focus.

I have to admit, I hated that thing, but I wasn’t thrilled when I realized that I had accidentally done some pretty serious damage to it while mowing the grass.

I had a motto at that time in my life, “Hide it, deny it, and if you have to fight it.” Perhaps you had a similar pre-teen/teenage credo. And it worked well for me.

To fix the problem, a friend and I attempted to weld the broken pieces back together with a lighter. I’m sure you can imagine how effective this was in solving the problem, so “hiding it” wasn’t looking great (apparently I didn’t understand the principles of welding at the time).

I certainly wasn’t going to bring it to anyone’s attention, so I prepared my “deny it,” which consisted of deflecting attention onto my two brothers. Growing up in a house with three boys was great, there was always someone else who could be to blame.

“Fighting it” in this case would have been to argue that the lawn mower wasn’t broken. It didn’t seem like I’d win that argument as it is hard to deny a broken axl.

Since the three-pronged strategy wasn’t going to work, I had to take responsibility for my actions and own up to the accident.

That was the start of my understanding of responsibility and accountability.

And as an adult, I have moved beyond this teenage credo, but I know that this is not a given for everyone. Have you ever tried to work with or even talk with someone who is still holding on tight to a motto that probably served them well as a teenager? They do everything possible to deflect your attention here or there, they justify, argue, make excuses, it’s an exhausting conversation.

Top performers know that the buck stops with them. They don’t play the “hide it, deny it, fight it” game and instead own up to their mistakes and learn from them. Encourage the people you work with to step up to their responsibilities. And, of course, the best way to do this is to lead by example.

Someone says, “I’m thirsty.” What does this mean to you? Is this simply nice to know information or do you hear beyond the words and understand that they are probably asking you to get them something to drink.

If you felt that this was simply nice to know, this is called explicit listening. You have heard what the person said, but you didn’t dig any deeper to the extra meaning in their words.

In order to be a truly exceptional communicator, it is important to begin to pay attention to the indirect communication that people share when they speak. This is called implicit listening. In this case, the implicit meaning to their communication could well be a request for you to get them something to drink. Now, of course, it is completely up to you whether or not you want to act on this request, but just knowing that there is more to their statement than merely informing you of their thirst, is a powerful first step.

This is where you can begin to get very strategic with your communication. Begin to listen closely to not only what people are saying to you directly, but also what they are communicating indirectly. These insights will give you a valuable edge as a communicator because you will learn how to address other people’s unspoken needs.